Rain in Spain

First day in Majorca is a wash-out. Heavy rain on and off making cycling conditions hazardous.  We compensated by picking up our bikes from Bruce at ProCycle and fiddling about getting the seat and handlebars  right, in preparation for tomorrow. Get this, our Van Nicholas bikes are TITANIUM- space technology descends to our humble pedals. Does that mean we'll be flying up those mountain passes?

More tomorrow.

Before we go to Mallorca

It's been a crazy week - Liz is in Birmingham today at the Cycle Expo conference.
The day before, she was at Westminster for the launch of Get Britain Cycling, the report of the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group. To be fair, they've listened to the evidence submitted, but will the report be able to influence change, and who is listening outside the cycling world? Our comments were reported in BikeBiz, and we'll continue to press for integrated policies aligned to changing people's lives at street level.


I (Jo) was at the Cheshire and Merseyside Public Health conference on Active Travel yesterday. I glowed with pride when the Merseytravel speaker described all the cycling interventions put in place by TravelWise - all delivered by BikeRight! - finishing with the U-tube video of the Community Cycle Package which featured on the BikeRight! home page.

Now, as the song goes...."All our bags are packed and we're ready to go" - on the 6.40am plane for Mallorca, for a week's cycling in the sun with our Fit Friends.

Keeping going

Really pleased to see the story of our Hadrians Cycleway ride in totalwomenscycling.com: http://totalwomenscycling.com/riding/hadrians-cycleway-8-women-3-days-174-miles-4192/. 

We did a bit of pedalling on the Brompton, not too demanding for the few days after the ride.  Today, a week later, is my first serious seven-mile pull up the steady gradient from home to work, pedalling against a deadline (BikeRight! Management Team meeting at 9am).

My legs are surprisingly tired, and after half an hour my Achilles' tendon starts to twinge again - damn! A more gradual return is obviously needed, a bit more deference to the fact that my body is no longer young.

More of Hadrian's Cycleway

Here's a fab slide show of our trip - many thanks to Cathy for this.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t3nh000joug9wuk/Hadrians%20Cycleway-Display.m4v

And many thanks to all the Team Glow participants who made the trip fun and possible - from the chocolate eclairs to the bird-spotting to supporting each other up all those hills.

Hadrians Cycleway

RAVENGLASS Roman Bath House - note the snow

Back home again after a thrilling three days on the bike, forcing our way through the 'Beast from the East' wind following the Sustrans route of Hadrian's Wall from Cumbria to Tyneside. 

We were delighted to be able to offer BikeRight! vehicles to transport the 8 women and bikes at the start and finish

Cycle path, Cumbria

.

 It's the first time ever that we've had NO RAIN and NO PUNCTURES on a cycle trip, and as a result we had stunning views of the white peaks of the Lake District and over the Solway Firth to Scotland.




Hadrian's Wall starts here




On top of the world - 110 miles along

At Once Brewed youth hostel, the star-scape above us was amongst the best we've seen in our whole lives. 


Once we moved inland we could see for miles towards the snowy Yorkshire Dales and the green vast expanses of Northumbrian rolling hills. 





For some of us, the finish was BikeRight! Newcastle at the Cycle Hub on Newcastle Quayside  - apart from the intrepid two who continued the final 9 miles and took the ferry to the Roman Fort at South Shields. We've brought home a sore Achillles tendon, a tremendous satisfaction at seeing the countryside from a bike-side view, and notes for an article for www.totalwomenscycling.com 




Newcastle Cycle Hub